Glenpool is a city in Tulsa County, Oklahoma, United States. It is part of the Tulsa Metropolitan Statistical Area (TMSA). As of 2010, the population was 10,808. This was an increase of 33.1% since the 2000 census, which reported total population as 8,123.[3]

Glenpool is notable because the discovery of oil here in 1905 caused an economic boom that propelled the growth of Tulsa and its environs. Although the Glenn Pool field, for which the city was named, still produces a small amount of oil, the city now is primarily a bedroom community for Tulsa.

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On November 22, 1905, wildcatters, Robert Galbreath and Frank Chesley (along with, by some accounts, Charles Colcord), drilling for oil on farmland owned by Creek Indian Ida E. Glenn, created the first oil gusher in what would soon be known as the "Glenn Pool". The discovery set off a boom of growth for the area, bringing in hordes of people: lease buyers, producers, millionaires, laborers, tool suppliers, drunks, swindlers, and newspeople. Daily production soon exceeded 120,000 barrels (19,000 m3). The nearby city of Tulsa benefited from the production, and Glenpool calls itself the town that made Tulsa famous.[4]

By 1906, a settlement of Glenn, consisting of twelve families had grown up nearby. In that year, the Midland Valley Railroad extended a track from Jenks. By 1907, nearly 3,000 people had moved to the area, but only about 500 people actually lived in the town in 1910. Lots were platted and a post office opened on January 31, 1908. The new community was renamed Glenpool.[5]

Sometime after the discovery, Ida Glenn and her husband, Robert, sold their farm and moved to California.[6]

Population grew to 428 in 1920, but declined thereafter to 280 in 1950. A post-WWII building boom then pushed the population upward to 353 in 1960. During the 1970s and 1980s, urban sprawl of the city of Tulsa reached Glenpool, and the town became a bedroom suburb. It has been growing since. By 1970 the population had risen to 770, then to 2,706 in 1980.[5]

An annual celebration called "Black Gold Days" is a 3-day family-friendly event with food, music, arts and crafts, a carnival, and a parade.[4] It commemorates the glory years of Glenpool's history.

Edith Durant, who is 18 on July 3, 1917, owns one of the richest oil and gas producers in the famous Glenn Pool in Tulsa county, where the first oil was struck in this country. Lee Hays and Monday Durant, joint guardians, will hand over next July to her a lease for the...company, giving her one-eighth of the production, $100,000 in cash, $50,000 in notes and mortgages and the title to a number of farms in Muskogee county, amounting in all to more than a million dollars.

Galbreath and Chesley had used their own money to pay for an oil drilling rig, with operator, and a lease on Ida Glenn's land. By November 22, 1905, they had drilled through the Red Fork Sand, the deepest known producing sand in the area without striking oil. There was a small stream of natural gas at a depth of 1,450 feet (440 m), so they decided to drill deeper. A few feet further down, the rig encountered a formation known as the Bartlesville Sand, where Chesley noticed the first trace of oil on the drill bit. The well began making a gurgling sound and soon emitted a gusher clear over the derrick. The well soon produced over 75 barrels a day of light, sweet crude oil. Galbreath and Chesley named the well Ida Glenn Number 1.[11] In 1906, Galbreath drilled another well about 300 feet (91 m) from Ida Glenn Number 1. This well was also a producer.[12]

Other people rushed to the area to begin drilling, and soon defined the extent of the field. Prices for leases and for drilling services rose sharply. Fewer than two percent of the wildcat wells failed to produce oil. Some of the Creek landowners began earning as much as a million dollars a year from royalties on the production from their 160-acre plots. According to one source,"... More money was made on the Oklahoma oil boom than the California gold rush and Colorado silver rush combined."[11]

After only one year, the Glenn Pool field had 127 completed wells. Of these, 107 produced oil, 12 found only gas and 11 were dry holes. In addition, 24 more wells were in progress and 33 sites were being readied for drilling. By 1907, the field was increasingly controlled by three companies: Texaco, Gulf Oil Company and Prairie Oil and Gas. Galbreath and Chesley were ready to move on. They sold their Glenn Pool holdings to Edgar Crosbie for $US 500,000 and $US 200,000, respectively.[12]

The Ida Glenn well was plugged and abandoned in 1964. The Glen Pool field still produces a relatively small flow of oil in the 21st Century using waterflood techniques. Over its life span, the field has produced more than 340 million barrels of oil.[11]

There were 3,723 households out of which 49.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 63.2% were married couples living together, 14.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 18.5% were non-families. 15.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 3.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.91 and the average family size was 3.25.

In the city the population was spread out with 33.5% under the age of 18, 8.6% from 18 to 24, 35.5% from 25 to 44, 16.8% from 45 to 64, and 5.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30 years. For every 100 females there were 90.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.5 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $61,814 and the median income for a family was $66,578. The per capita income for the city was $24,096. About 5.0 of the total population were below the poverty line.[16][17]

Glenpool High School won the Class 4A state football championship in both 2002 and 2008. The football season prior to current head coach Steve Edwards taking over, the football team went 0-10 under coach James Lawson, in 2002 coach Edwards went 14-0. The school has a rich history of producing great running backs including Anthony Cato, Courtney Tennial, Jerwin Johnson, and Marco Nelson.[19][20]